By Shelby O'Neill
For Dr. Edward Kahil, losing is not an option. Everything he does is in service of winning every case he faces at the Animal Medical Center of Copperas Cove. And in 2009, he claimed another victory – the Texas Veterinary Medical Association Companion Animal Practitioner of the Year Award.
“I’d say what I’m proudest of is that I’m going to give everything I have for every patient,” Dr. Kahil said. “I hate to lose a case. I want to make it a successful outcome. Luckily we don’t have to deal with failures a whole lot. Most of the time we get happy endings, and people are happy, and I’m happy. It’s all worth it when you do have a good outcome, which makes this a pretty unique profession. You get to deal with a lot of complex stuff, and you get to see a lot of happy people. What more could you want?”
A love of medicine was instilled in Dr. Kahil at a young age, because his father was a doctor, and his mother worked as a nurse. He knew that veterinary medicine interested him more, so he enrolled in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University in 1981. After he graduated in 1985, he intended to enter mixed practice and moved to Copperas Cove, near Killeen, to work on horses. When he became a partner in the practice in 1988, the Animal Medical Center Copperas Cove was in a small shopping center, but by the time he bought his partner, Dr. Marty Hughes, out in 1992, the hospital had moved into a new building that had won the Veterinary Economics Hospital of the Year Award for Design. The focus of the practice also shifted to companion animals only. Today, Dr. Kahil is the senior partner in the clinic along with three associates. The employment roster also includes his longtime practice manager, Leila Valchar, and around 20 technicians.
“I’m blessed to be surrounded by a lot of good people here,” Dr. Kahil said of the practice’s success. “They are so supportive on an everyday basis. I’m one little piece of the puzzle here. The only reason we can offer what we do is because we’ve got the whole puzzle.”
Dr. Kahil credits his associates, Drs. Kelly Henton, Barbara Hughes and Jeff Saylor, for their proficiency with the medicine part of the practice, which frees him to target his efforts on his niche, surgery and even more specifically, neurology and orthopedics.
“I think what I love about surgery is that there’s no limits to what you can do,” he explained. “The limits are what you impose on yourself. If you’re willing to put the time in to learn something, you can. And you can do it well. With surgery, you’ve got to be willing to take risks and you’ve got to be willing to fail. One of the things I like about it is that I know when not to jump in there. And you know, I think the other thing about it is that we’re never going to have all the answers. I don’t care how much you do of something, the next one can be a little different and challenge you in a little different way, and I think that’s what makes this fun.”
Putting the time into learning more about veterinary medicine is another of Dr. Kahil’s passions. He takes between 60 to 80 hours of continuing education each year and also gets up early every single morning to read and study for an hour, either for a specific case he’s working on or boning up on a topic for his next CE meeting. In addition, he’s constantly learning from other people.
“With the continuing education I do, I’ve got a pretty good resource of people I can call in just about every discipline, so if I get stuck, I don’t hesitate to call,” Dr. Kahil said. “I used to call my professors at A&M on a daily basis. And I used my dad as a heck of a resource. We started changing the way we treated heart patients based on what my dad had done for his patients. I miss not having my dad to bounce stuff off of anymore, but at this point, I’ve got a heck of a lot of people I can call up at any second, and these iPhones are great for that. I’ve become tech savvy because I’ve had to, so now I can call and take a picture of what I’m looking at and they can have the same picture that I’ve got.”
The combination of constant learning and a network of experts to pool resources with has allowed Dr. Kahil to put Copperas Cove on the map for cutting edge veterinary medicine. At the Animal Medical Center, he performs difficult surgeries including tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO), total hip replacement and triple pelvic osteotomy, as well as stem cell transfers. He’s also constantly updating the equipment at the practice, incorporating ultrasound machines and, in the near future, a CT.
“I don’t like to let grass grow under my feet,” he said. “There are too many things to do. I’m getting close to what I want to do. I don’t want to keep expanding forever. I don’t know that I can keep doing more, but last year I personally went up about 10 percent in the amount of work that I do so the slowing down that I’m thinking that I want to do at some point in time really isn’t happening. I like what I do, so as long as I do, I’m going to keep plugging away. There will probably be a time when I do less time in the clinic because I don’t seem to recharge as quickly when I’m out, but I drive pretty hard when I’m here. That’s just the way I am. I’ll never change.”
Because of that dedication and tenacity, Dr. Kahil understands the importance, both mentally and physically, of a little downtime. About once or twice a month, he and his wife, Deborah, head down to the Gulf Coast to relax and recharge. For Dr. Kahil, that happens best when he’s fishing.
“When I put a fishing pole in my hand, everything is gone,” he said. “It’s instant relief. One of the things I learned from my dad is that he couldn’t ever really let go of work. I’ve always tried to put things into perspective with that. I’d say I’m very similar to that, but when I get on the water, I can forget instantly so that’s my real release.”
Back in Copperas Cove, Deborah Kahil helps make the community more knowledgeable about her husband’s profession. She holds a degree in elementary education and has coordinated for school groups to come in and do tours of the clinic, bringing them up close and personal with ultrasounds, X-rays and the latest innovations in veterinary medicine.
“Community awareness and veterinary awareness are big things,” he said. “There are some people who just have no clue what veterinary medicine is capable of. And to have it in Copperas Cove, people are really amazed. ‘Y’all do that?’ ‘Yeah.’ There’s a pride there, I’ll certainly admit, and it’s nice to be able to offer that sort of stuff.”
In addition to his regular patients, Dr. Kahil does referral work for around 50 other veterinarians and serves on the board of the local emergency clinic, which he helped found. Ultimately, Dr. Kahil credits his success to his staff and his family, which includes his daughter, Crystal, who graduated in 2008 from her father’s alma mater of Texas A&M.
“This year has been fantastic,” Dr. Kahil said. “With this award, I got tears in my eyes just from being nominated, and when I found out I got it, I was like, wow. To me, that’s a lifetime achievement. I would never have anticipated that. I’m very honored. This profession has given a lot to me, and I hope I can give as much back to the profession. I love what I do, and I’m blessed to be able to do it.”
